Forced Worship reaches 7,000 hits

Forced Worship has reached 7,000 hits.  While I am happy that this blog is being found useful, I am disturbed that there remains such a need for it.

Please feel free to look at some of my earlier posts for an understanding of what you need to do to get your driving privileges back.  The licensed alcohol and drug counselors (LADCs) who determine whether or not you deserve this believe the standard AA religious pseudo-science:

• you have a disease called "alcoholism"

• the cure is to admit this and ask for God's help ("hit your knees")

• this cure requires nothing less than the complete abstention from alcohol

This is what places like Amethyst Foundation, Inc., and those that work in the recovery industry, want from you.  We all know how deluded this is.  The crime for what you've been arrested is for driving while impaired, not being impaired.  It is not against the law to consume alcohol.

Go along with this charade and do your best job at acting to make them believe you.  Do not show any sign of "willfulness," intelligence, or independent thought.  AA is a cult, and these AA-trained LADCs want mindless, subservient, stupid followers to recruit. Pretend that you are one of the "pigeons" they want.

Otherwise, they will punish you by assigning perpetual, expensive "aftercare," and, perhaps like me, an attempt to permanently revoke your driving privileges (despite it having been only a 1st Offense DWI).

Be very careful until you get your license back.  Good luck.

Amethyst Foundation, Inc.'s 2010 IRS Form 990 -- More of the $ame

I've previously posted on the outrageous amount of money Amethyst Foundation, Inc., brings in, all tax-free.

Well, their IRS Form 990 for 2010 is now available and shows more of the same:

• a whopping total revenue of $1,165,753.00, of which $1,161,774.00 is entirely program service revenue from the state.

And, apparently, Amethyst Foundation, Inc., operated in the red last year, with expenses of $1,185,201, including:

• $557,353 in wages (!)  Really?
• $76,623 for Director Bob Kelley's salary
• $35,476 for office supplies (!!)  I saw one old HP inkjet printer when I was there.
•  $109,868 for "all other expenses." 

And if you buy that, I have some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.

My Post to the Ripoff Report on Amethyst Foundation, Inc.

I'm not sure why I waited this long, but I finally got around to posting my experience with Amethyst  Foundation, Inc., on the RipOff Report website:

Several years ago, the state of NH privatized its impaired driver intervention programs, or IDIPs.  They are now all run by private organizations, of which Amethyst Foundation, Inc (aka "Amethyst House") is the largest.  Supposedly a "non-profit," Amethyst Foundation, Inc., nets well over a million dollars a year, all of which is tax-free.  They list one employee, Bob Kelley, on their IRS statements.  NH law mandates that you go to the closest organization, which for most people in the state means going to Amethyst Foundation.  They have a virtual monopoly.  Additionally, to ensure that the "customers" continue to roll in, Amethyst Foundation employs several experienced, influential lobbyists that apply pressure on NH State Representatives to maintain strict penalties for DUIs.  Bob Kelley has a sweet scam going, and it's all legal.

I admittedly made a huge blunder resulting in a 1st Offense DUI.  Though I had already paid large court and administrative fines, I was resigned to doing the IDIP program which met once a week for four weeks.  I was not prepared for what I would encounter there.

Most of the people that work at Amethyst Foundation, almost without exception, seemed bitter with the hand that life had dealt them, had a hateful, puritanical streak, treated clients like garbage, and were all too happy to exact punishment for the slightest infraction.  I suspect that most were former heavy alcoholics who had gone through the highly religious Alcoholics Anonymous program to stop drinking (they "hit their knees" in AA-speak, found god, and got dry).  I suspect that their cognitive abilities were affected by their past alcoholism, rendering them absolutely incompetent at their jobs.  I was pressured from day one, and throughout the IDIP program, to attend AA and get a sponsor. 

I told them that AA has been ruled by both Federal and State Courts to be a religious organization for purposes of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment.  Despite this, and the fact that this was my first DUI, they assigned six months of twice weekly mandatory attendance at AA meetings.  At each meeting, I was pressured to pray, listen to these people's ignorant, holier-than-thou, pseudoscience rantings based on the Big Book written by Bill W. (really, the radical puritan/evangelical Oxford group--google it).  At the end of every meeting, members hold hands and recite the Lord's Prayer.  Nonbelievers are treated with contempt, scorn, and pity--this was perhaps the most egregious of the insults.

I complained in writing, sent certified/return receipt requested, to Amethyst Foundation, Inc. throughout this procedure.  Most of my letters were ignored.  The responses I got dripped with contempt.  Mr. Kelley went so far as to even attempt to mislead me over the phone into exhausting my one administrative hearing so that I wouldn't have another one for a year.

In addition to attending AA meetings, I also had to see a Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor, or LDAC, weekly, for four to six months.  This person was also a hard-core AA true believer.  These meetings consisted of him, not trying to help me with any supposed alcohol problems, but with trying to convince of god's existence and how wonderful AA is.  I had to pay him for this privilege.

The LDAC told me that Amethyst Foundation, Inc., punishes people who complain by taking their licenses away permanently or effectively doing so by ordering extensive aftercare.  When I completed my initial aftercare of AA and LDAC meetings, I received a notice from the Department of Safety of an Administrative Hearing requested by Amethyst Foundation to permanently revoke my license.  This occured despite the fact the I attended, with verification, all required AA meetings, and obtained a positive evaluation by my LDAC.

Luckily, I had written to the Governor several weeks prior, whose staff then contacted the Head of the NH Dept of Health and Human Services.  I updated the Governor's staff on what Amethyst Foundation had done.  The NH Dept of HHS then reprimanded Mr. Kelley, including sending him a written notice that mandating AA attendance was illegal.  I got my license back within a week.

Supposedly, Amethyst Foundation has been ordered to stop all aftercare self help group attendance.  I doubt that they will do this.  The staff there are on a religious mission to save people by getting them to go to AA.  They are really religious prohibitionists that want to eliminate all alcohol use, not just merely prevent future DUIs.  History has shown that you cannot stop religious zealots.

Surprisingly, I'm really not angry at what happened.  I'm more saddened and disappointed that in this day and age such backward religious zealots can still do such harm.  I thought that we, as a country that so highly values individual rights and freedoms, had moved beyond that long ago.  Ironically, this occurred in NH, the "live free or die" state.  How hypocritical and ignorant some NH residents are.

Forced Worship Reaches 5,000 Hits

Visits to this website have reached over 5,000!

Lots of people are, apparently, still being assigned attendance at AA meetings as part of "aftercare" by Amethyst Foundation, Inc.  If this has happened to you, please note that:

Several Federal District Courts and State Courts, including the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, have ruled AA to be a "religious organization" for purposes of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  Coerced attendance at AA as part of your aftercare is illegal.

Amethyst Foundation, Inc., will often try to direct you to attend a "self-help" group as part of your aftercare, knowing full well that the only self-help groups available in the state of New Hampshire are AA.  They will then respond to your complaints by stating that "you are not being required to attend AA and are free to attend any self-help group you can find."

Should this happen, immediately inform Amethyst Foundation, Inc., the Governor of New Hampshire, and the Director of the State of New Hampshire Dept of Health and Human Services in writing, by certified mail/return receipt requested.  This should solve your problem.

In the unlikely event that this does not provide relief, file, pro se,  for a preliminary injunction in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

There is no reason to attend AA or any type of self-group as part of your "aftercare."  Yes, it was wrong to drive with a BAC over the legal limit.  But that does not justify your being punished by the religious zealots of Amethyst Foundation, Inc., REAP, Serenity House, and others of the "recovery industry" with forced participation at cult-like, religious AA meetings.

Newt Gingrich, Big Book Thumper

In this Youtube video from a 2011 Republican Candidate Debate, Newt Gingrich states,

"there was a part of me that was truly 'hollow' ...and finally, a banker, who was a friend of mine from Georgia, gave me 'the two books that make up Alcoholics Anonymous'"  

The two books Gingrich is referring to are "The Big Book," and "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions."

Gingrich went on to say:

"Now...I wasn't drinking, but I had precisely the symptoms of someone who was collapsing under this weight" [referring to his hollow feelings].

Reading the Big Book and trying to understand where I had failed and why I was empty and why I had to turn to God.  I think if I had not had that experience, that intervention, that I would have collapsed totally.  And that was really the beginning of turning my life around...I've been blessed."

I don't know what is more frightening:  The idea of this idiot being President, or the thought of people being so ignorant as to actually vote for him.

More from Bill W., Cult Leader

It's simple:  you either go to AA, conform complete to its covenant, or you die.

Update:  AA removed these videos from YouTube.  Even they are embarrassed by what their founder says. 

Bill W. speaks of "The Only Way..."

Straight from the cult leader's mouth.  Religion is everything to AA.

Again...I don't mind so much if people wish to do this foolishness on their own time.  People are free to do or worship how they wish.   Even  more so in New Hampshire, the "live free or die" state.

However, it is wrong, legally and morally, for a State government to force non-willing participants to attend what is, in essence, an undeniably religious organization.

Oh...and don't tell me "AA has changed," because it hasn't.  They still strictly adhere to the tenets of Bill W.'s "Big Book" which they regard as their bible.

Update:  AA has removed these embarrassing and disturbing videos of their founder.  I'll find them and repost them myself.

It revealing that AA has done this.  They don't stand behind what their leader says and what is written in the "Big Book."  They feel the need to hide it from viewers of Youtube.  What hypocrites.

Forced Worship Celebrates 4000 hits!

This tiny blog got over a thousand hits this week!

AA didn't work for Debra Oberlin....apparently

Former president of MADD arrested on DUI charge

By Cindy Swirko
Staff writer

Published: Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 11:58 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 11:58 a.m.

A former president of the defunct local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving was arrested recently by the Gainesville Police Department on a DUI charge.

Debra Oberlin, 48, was arrested after she had difficulty on a field sobriety test. She registered a .234 and .239 on breath alcohol tests. Florida's legal limit for driving is .08.

Oberlin, a Realtor, had no comment when contacted Thursday by The Sun.

On Feb. 18 at 1:10 a.m., an officer spotted Oberlin driving erratically on Northwest 19th Street, swerving and crossing lanes, an arrest report states. Oberlin was pulled over in the 3600 block of Northwest 39th Avenue.

The officer wrote that Oberlin smelled of alcohol and had watery, bloodshot and dilated eyes. The report states that Oberlin told the officer she had four beers.

Gainesville's MADD chapter existed for several years in the 1990s before closing in 1996 because of lack of financial support. Oberlin was the chapter president for three years.

Disclose.tv - Former President Of MADD Arrested On DUI Charge Video


Blogger Jeremy Witteveen (Le Café Witteveen) posted a blog entry entitled "I love you, Debra Oberlin" and got this response:

"This hippocritical bitch should be public beat to death or better yet,turned over to any 100 of the thousands whose lives she helped ruin with her holier than thou bullshit,and let them deal with her.It would be too much to ask for that the system will subject her to the full extent of the law.  They will probably coddel her because of the income flow she helped create."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving "was originally formed by Candice Lightner, who later left the organization. In 2002 she said that MADD 'has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned ... I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.'"  MADD, like AA, the "recovery" system, and IDIP providers here in New Hampshire like Amethyst Foundation, Inc., Serenity House, Inc., REAP, Inc., don't want to eliminate drinking and driving--they want to eliminate drinking entirely in keeping with the religious/cult doctrines of AA (while making quite a nice, tax-free, profit doing so).

Good job, AA!  You took an organization that once had merit (MADD) and ran it into the ground, trampling people's civil liberties, creating a legion of people that absolutely despise you.

The Heresy of the Twelve Steps

The fundamentalist, former drunks who run AA (and the entire "industry" including Amethyst Foundation, Inc.), if they had functioning intellects, would quickly realize that the Twelve Steps are heresy.  But, either by choice, or by past alcohol use, or genetics, or a combination thereof, they don't.  I'll spell it out for them:

"I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me."  1st Commandment

In the Alcoholics Anonymous program, you can use anything for your "God" or "Higher Power". A.A. has lots of stories of people using a bedpan, a teacup, a doorknob, a stone, a teddy bear, a mountain, a motorcycle, or "Good Orderly Direction" for their "Higher Power". You can pray to any Golden Calf, stone idol, or Higher-Powered item of Household Hardware that you like.  One of the more ridiculous word redefinitions that A.A. offers us is, you can make the word "G.O.D." mean "Group Of Drunks".  The LADC I was mandated to see told me, therefore, that my atheism was no excuse not to like A.A.

A.A. founder Bill Wilson ("Bill W.") wrote:

        "I must quickly assure you that A.A.'s tread innumerable paths in their quest for faith.   ...   You can, if you wish, make A.A. itself your 'higher power.' Here's a very large group who have solved their alcohol problem. In this respect they are certainly a power greater than you, who have not even come close to a solution. Surely you can have faith in them. Even this minimum of faith will be enough."

             --Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, William G. Wilson, page 27.

Given that most Christians believe in the holy trinity (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost), I don't think many of them would think kindly to praying to a Group Of Drunks, or seeking and doing the will of a bunch of drunkards.  Also, how would Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or Jews feel about being told this?

But then, that's assuming that people that go to A.A. think.  They don't.

In addition, the Twelve Steps talk about "God as we understood Him". Members are allegedly free to define God however they imagine or understand "Him" to be. Bill Wilson told A.A. recruiters to

        Stress the spiritual feature freely. If the man be agnostic or atheist, make it emphatic that he does not have to agree with your conception of God. He can choose any conception he likes, provided it makes sense to him. The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles.

                    --The Big Book, William G. Wilson, Chapter 7, Working With Others, page 93. 

Obviously, this makes A.A. incompatible with atheism.  Atheism is the non-belief in a higher power.  But A.A. members just see an atheist's nonbelief as another fault (like his alcoholism in denial) that needs to be cured.  God will cure the poor sap's atheism--he just needs to be dragged in to A.A. meetings.

How about making my higher power Satan?  Or Hitler?  Or Wotan, Thor, Loki, etc...?  Some of the people I've meet at A.A. meetings are absolutely insane.  They have truly drunk the cool-aid and are full-blown cult followers.  I'm sure some of the things they understand god to be would get them committed if anyone looked at A.A. with any degree of scrutiny.  (A.A., for some reason, likely ignorance, gets largely a free pass by society, despite it being a religious cult which is completely ineffective at treating alcoholism.)

Bill Wilson emphatically repeated that doctrine in the Big Book:

        Despite the living example of my friend [a sober Ebby Thacher] there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word God still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea.   ..

        My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said,"Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"

        That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.

        It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from that point. Upon a foundation of complete willingness I might build what I saw in my friend. Would I have it? Of course I would!

        Thus was I convinced that God is concerned with us humans when we want Him enough. At long last I saw, I felt, I believed. Scales of pride and prejudice fell from my eyes. A new world came into view.

                    --Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story", Page 12.

        We were now at Step Three. Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!" We thought well before taking this step making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.

                    --A.A. Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 63.

        Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstance.

                    --The Big Book, 3rd Edition, William G. Wilson, page 100. 

You might be thinking that this is just "The Big Book" and A.A. doesn't really follow it strictly.  You would be wrong in thinking so.  You will very quickly learn that "The Big Book" is the absolute final authority and is never to be questioned!  Bill W. is viewed as a near-God by these people.  This, despite his well-documented abuse of his wife, infidelity, narcissism, and his utter failure at being sober (he cried out for whiskey on his deathbed).

The blind, cult-like obedience to the religion of A.A. extends beyond the meetings in church basements.  In New Hampshire, the agencies entrusted with carrying out court-ordered Impaired Driver Intervention Programs (IDIPs), such as Amethyst Foundation, Inc., REAP, Inc., and Serenity House, Inc., are owned, operated, and staffed by A.A. members.  Staff members spread the gospel of A.A. during IDIP classes, declare everyone an alcoholic (either admitted or in denial) and order mandatory A.A. attendance as part of the aftercare that virtually everyone is assigned.  Also, as part of the "aftercare" is mandatory counseling sessions with Licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselors, who happen to espouse...yes, that's right, the tenets of A.A. 

In essence, the state of New Hampshire let A.A. infiltrate a significant component of the government.  (And I haven't even mentioned A.A.'s role in New Hampshire's prisons, parole hearings, professional disciplinary proceedings, and others yet...I will later.)  The entire recovery industry is reaping in huge (tax free) revenue while indoctrinating new member into their A.A. cult.  It's a great scam, and I'm sure the smart ones at the top are laughing their way to the bank.  The stupid ones being exploited merely think they are saving souls.

Here's one final secret about A.A. members:  they lie.  They lie because they believe they are saving souls and that they know better than you.  I've caught people at A.A. meetings (and at Amethyst Foundation, Inc.) red-handed in the act of lying, with well-documented evidence, and they still shamelessly maintain they are right.

If you are at the mercy of these people and need your license back, you need to understand the personalities you are dealing with.  These are people who think they are fault-less and perfect because god has revealed to them the truth.  They take pity on you.  With the power they have been entrusted by the state they will bend you to their will.  Play dumb.  Reveal no will, backbone, or free-thought.  Lie, as they will lie to you.  Escape their clutches, get your license back and flip them the bird in your rear view mirror as you drive away.

If there were a god, and the Ten Commandments, these people would surely be going to hell.